Reborn Lightning
by Paradox Blade
Summary: Even speedsters have to slow down once in a while. Wally had decided to slow down and quit the hero gig for good. But when something happens and he is called to get back in the fast lane, will he restart his engine?
1. Chapter 1: Priorities

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Young Justice or DC comics, or any of the characters associated with the two.**

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**Reborn Lightning**

**Chapter 1: Priorities**

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**BOOM!**

Like a crackle of thunder, a surge of blood red combined with a verdant green had slammed into the asphalt, breaking up the already battered earth and rupturing the water mainline, causing water to spurt out and come back down like an army of needles as they fought to pierce through the thick layer of dust.

As the the deceiving smoke began to clear, there radiating the very color that heralded villains far and wide that they should beware his power was Green Lantern, better known by a select few as Hal Jordan. His uniform tattered and his breathing getting heavier by the second, he uplifted the sovereign weapon given to him, and many others by the Guardians of the Oa once more and constructed a small green dome of hard light that shielded him as repeated blasts of purple energy came charging straight for him.

As sinister violet kept clashing with heroic viridian, a beastly but also at the same time authoritative voice came upon his ears, "Your evolution was a mistake but mine? Mine was _destiny!_ Reclaiming this earth, I will make all in my own likeness!"

'_Gotta...stay...focused!'_ This thought never escaped Hal's mind as he struggled to keep the barrier going.

"Yet you humans refuse to surrender a world that by rights belongs to me?! I, who can control even the strongest of minds and channel primal rage?!"

"Life is survival of the fittest," Hal could see a rather large, beastly figure coming towards him, highlighted by the bright orange ember in the background that lit up the smoke to have a more light-brownish hue. Not wanting to be a sitting duck any longer, Hal relinquished the shield and went on the offensive, quickly creating an M1 Anti-Tank Gun from World War 2 in front of him which fired at the silhouette only to be stopped by a purple field of energy.

Just as the Lantern was about to take the skies, he was suddenly hit with a purple telekinetic bolt that sent him to the ground hard as what felt like a thousand roars of bestiality ran through his mind.

By the time Jordan was writhing in pain, the beast had made it through the smoke. But no, this beast was no ordinary beast, he had the appearance of a gorilla with yellow shoulder pads and head gear and a belt with some purple and gold cloth to show his modesty, that towered over the willpower user by sheer size, not only was he great in brute strength- he had the intelligence to match.

Grappling him by the neck, the gorilla brought the ring-wielder close to his face and increased the mental stress on his mind , "and Grodd won't just survive- He. Will. Triumph!" Declaring this with great pride, the other armored gorillas armed with laser rifles stood near him in awe and beat their chests while roaring out in sheer joy of their savior, their general, their idol.

One of the primates approached him and knelt down before him, "Sir, the devolution devices are ready-" The moment he had heard him say that, Grodd had growled and given him a powerful backhand.

"Devolution?! Ignorant fool! You know nothing! These humans will be morphed into a higher state of being and I will reclaim this earth and Gorilla City will be it's capital. It will be a new age, not an age of man, but an age of Grodd!" Looking into his subject's eyes and seeing fear, he gave a satisfied smirk when he knew he had gotten his point across, "Excellent work nonetheless."

Another Gorilla soldier approached him, "But, my King, what if some of the hairless apes manage to escape the waves that these devices give off?"

Grodd cackled and replied, "Humans are slow, immoral, and-" He picked up a scent from the Lantern's unconscious body and reeled back in disgust, tossing him off to the side like dirt, "and give off a rather unpleasant body odor." The super-intelligent primate then sat back and watched as the rest of his fellow Gorillas raved on through the streets of coast city, upturning, assaulting more U.S. soldiers, and harassing- moreover, bringing the civilians that were just trying to get away from all the destruction into a 'higher state of being.'

Even though Grodd obviously possessed a different perspective on the subject, the devolution devices were already whirling to life and devolving ordinary citizens back into large apes that lost their sense of reason and went on a rampage through the streets. Some of the resistant humans that were avoiding the devices were chained by the rifle-toting Gorilla troops and cattle-prodded on board state-of-the-art silver hover-vehicles that probably acted like Armored Personnel Carriers for the warriors that hailed from Gorilla City.

Coast City is known as the 'City Without Fear,' but right now it's residents were as scared as hell. In the midst of all the chaos which was the result of bestial guile, there was an abrupt flash of flames in the distance to which some of the Gorilla sentries stationed near the devolution devices stared at for a moment when a loud whirring sound came to their ears as it got louder and louder and closer and closer, they couldn't see anything but hear as they heard a '_Zoom!'_ go by.

Next thing they knew, the devolution device had suddenly exploded and the whole fireteam had scattered, the explosion sending them flying away a few feet away before they hit the ground hard.

A few soldiers a distance away from the confusion were loading up on prisoners. One of the Gorillas had prodded a slow-moving young girl with his staff so forcefully that she had fell to the ground, causing the soldier to shout, "Keep moving you hairless ape!"

She didn't move. In fact, she sat there about to burst into tears.

"You dare defy a direct order from your superiors, human?!" The gruff soldier snarled and readied his staff to stab her, "King Grodd would be pleased if this insolence was cleansed from this new age."

Suddenly, there was a yellow and red blur that appeared in front of the soldier as he was about to strike. When his staff didn't move, he noticed a green-eyed teenage boy with spiky red hair clad in a yellow suit with red pants, yellow shoes, red gloves, and small red wings that were etched over where his ears would be. On his chest was a red lightning bolt within a white circle.

The adolescent shot him a glare which came right through the cowl as he grasped the wooden pole of the staff and angled it away from the girl, "Leave her alone!" When he noticed the gorilla wrestled the weapon out of his hand, he zoomed around around him and threw haymakers at him like machine-gun fire while the trooper attempted to hit him with the staff. With one final high-speed blow to the jaw, the soldier was down for the count and he continued on to the rest of the troopers before freeing the prisoners.

While he was doing that, a crimson blur had jetted on by and passed through more of the devices as if it wasn't even there, each one exploding in it's wake as it headed straight towards Gorilla Grodd. Said ruler of the apes responded with a flechette of telekinetic beams which came out of his helmet like bullets come roaring out from the barrel of a shotgun and chased down the crimson streak like a lion chases after a gazelle.

As the streak of crimson rushed forward to meet the incoming mental projectiles, it managed to evade the maze of homing projectiles.

"Prepare yourselves! We must defend King Grodd at all costs!" One of Grodd's most trusted lieutenants said as he readied his rifle. Just when he was about to get into a combat stance, he found his gun was no longer in his hand, "What in the name of Grodd?-" He could see multiple after-images of a man in a red costume with yellow boots racing around. It was almost like he was looking at some kind of animated flip-book of some sort. He noticed his gun not too far away and ran over there to get it-

_Wham!_

As one of Grodd's best lieutenants fell to the ground in defeat, a yellow boot being placed on his unconscious furry being.

Grodd, who had witnessed the whole thing snorted and let out a menacing snarl as the man approached the great ape. This man was a person who if you just mentioned his name in front of Grodd, made him surge with rage. He is one of his greatest enemies if not the swiftest and most annoying of them all. He would be overjoyed when the day came that he would make this man bleed the same color of his costume, and tear those ridiculous small yellow wings off his ears and mount his head on a stake somewhere outside Gorilla City.

"What's the matter, Grodd? Got tired of Central City?" These words came from the mouth of the 'champion of mankind' that he hated the most- '**The Fastest Man Alive**.'

A yellow and red streak had appeared next to him, revealing his protege known as '**The Fastest Boy Alive.' **

All this planning, all this ordinance and technology gathered for this invasion was going to be stopped by just two speedsters? Grodd wasn't having any of this, "California is just the beginning, Flash. Once the whole west coast becomes the land of the apes, Central City shall be _next!_ You will be the first of many to kneel before their dominating ruler!"

Kid Flash rolled his eyes, "Ha! The only thing you're dominating is the conversation, fur-face!" He was the first to charg at the mentally-enhanced ape, "Now it's bed-time for bonzo!"

Grodd smirked and simply activated his mental powers again. As he tapped into the minds of both Flashes, all he saw was electricity until he was cast back out.

"Guraaaahh!" Grodd shrieked as he clutched his head in pain, he could still feel their minds moving at super-speed!

Now it was the scarlet speedster's turn to smirk. While Grodd was dazed and confused, him and Kid Flash blitzed him, raining down punches that only annoyed the gorilla until they decided to speed it up and began hitting at a hair's breadth short of the speed of sound.

Flash chuckled at how defenseless the primate was as they both assailed him, "Your devices may be able to affect the minds of all these people, Grodd. But how well do they do against people who can not only **move** fast,"

_Bam!_

",but **think **just as fast?"

_Wham! _

As the oversized primate was knocked out cold by that last blow, Flash could see the barrel of a laser gun in his peripheral vision, which was quickly knocked away and so was the owner by none other than Kid Flash.

The mentor gave a thankful grin and a nod to his 14 year-old nephew and sped off to assist a fallen Hal Jordan, who was just coming out of his unconscious state, "Barry?" He groaned and put his hands on his head, "W-What's going on? Where's Gro-" noticing the super-villain down for the count, that the answer was pretty self-explanatory, "How long was I out?" He noticed Barry holding out a hand to him and accepted it.

"Not too long. Sorry we couldn't get here sooner, Heat Wave was starting lots of fires in Maine and the Weather Wizard was causing a blizzard in Texas." He explained as he helped his best friend up.

Hal raised an eyebrow through that green domino mask of his, "We?"

Kid Flash suddenly appeared next to them in a blur, "You okay, Hal?"

Adjusting his head and feeling a few cracks here and there, he nodded, "Yeah, I'll be fine. Grodd caught me off guard with those mental attacks of his but I'm all good now. Thanks, Wally." Giving him a reassuring smile and a thumbs up, Hal noticed some Gorilla troops trying to flee the scene.

"King Grodd has fallen! Retreat! Retreat!" A trooper howled off in the distance.

Smirking, he emanated himself in green energy, "You guys go check with Solavar in Gorilla City. I got this-"

Wally got in front of him, "And leave us out of the all the action? I don't think so! You can just go home and relax and-"

Chuckling, he replied, "Hey! My city, remember?"

"True, it is your city...that's about to be saved by me!" Barry said, laughing and speeding off to go fight the gorillas.

"I may not be as fast as your uncle, but a Green Lantern's speed is nothing to sneeze at. Heck, there was this one time I was flying so fast in outer space that-"

While Hal was going on about accelerating towards light-speed in space, Wally had already got into a starting position and explained, "Race you there!"

"So, what do you think of that, Wal-"

_Zoom!_

"ly?" The brunet sighed and took to the skies, soaring straight towards the conflict at a speed that almost had broken the sound barrier.

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**-Seven Years Later, Palo Alto- **

As the T.V. screen flared to life, a blond Caucasian male with cerulean blue eyes wearing the common suit and tie combination appeared with a picture of the Justice League behind himn crossed out with a big, fat red 'x.'

" They call themselves protectors of earth but what are they _really_ hiding? If they want to protect us then why do they constantly keep secrets from us like oh, I don't know... their HQ, the Watchtower, hovering over our very heads as we speak!? God knows the weapons that come equipped with that station, just ready to drop on our very heads!"

"Speaking of weapons, what of Superman, the 'Man of Steel?' What is stopping him from bringing agony upon this Earth? For all we know, the League's views of right and wrong could be entirely different from our own! These are the questions you _need_ to be asking people!"

_Kra-thoom!_

Wallace, who was sitting on the couch with his laptop, typing up some kind of paper at inhuman speeds noticed some white highlights move past the blinds of some of the windows. Putting the laptop aside, he went to the window and pulled up the blinds to take a look.

**Lightning.**

That, a few of Barry's notes, and some spilled chemicals was what started it all for him. The very moment he got out of that hospital after the chemical explosion was when his superhero life began under the tutelage of the Flash, also known as Barry Allen.

Although he was his uncle, Barry was more of a father-figure to him. His true parents, especially his dad, had always barked at him for 'having his head in the clouds' and trying to follow his dreams. But if he hadn't followed his dreams then he probably never would have met his favorite hero (who turned out to be his uncle), gained super-human speed, or have the best girlfriend a man could ask for, Artemis Crock.

The thing about that one moment that could change your whole life is that it could come from any angle: the barrel of a gun; the destruction of your homeworld, even a lightning bolt from a clear sky.

His teenage life was accelerated into a high-speed, adrenaline-pumping, heart-pounding adventure with trouble bubbling around every corner- but even speedsters have to slow down once in a while.

However, unlike him, Artemis still loved the action, the rush that comes with the mask. Eventually, when the call of duty had came upon her ears, she couldn't say no to returning to the battlefield- the war between good and evil.

Wally knew he couldn't stop her, but now with the possibility of Aqualad being a triple agent , he worries about the fact that Artemis- or should he say 'Tigress,' might not come back to him in one piece.

He heard a few short pants near him and a litle whine, looked down only to see the male pitbull that him and Artemis adopted sitting near his leg.

He crouched down and scratched behind his whire ears, "I know, I miss her too."

As he let down the blinds he heard the doorbell ring and went to answer it. The door opened, revealing an adult male with pale skin, green eyes, and blond hair. He wore a fully zipped light green jacket with khaki pants and black shoes.

Wally's brow had raised at him, "Uncle Barry? What are you doing here?"

The older man responded with a grin, "Hey kid, just droppin' by to see how you're doin'." As Wally welcomed him in, the pitbull came running towards Barry, his tail wagging like there's no tomorrow. The blond chuckled and kneeled down to pet the ecstatic canine, "Heh, hey Caesar, it's good to see you too." He then went to take off his jacket and put it on the coat rack. Underneath said light-green jacket, was wearing a short-sleeve blue shirt.

For a _normal_ nephew, having your family members visit you by going from Missouri to California would take them a few hours but when you have an uncle who is the 'Fastest Man Alive,' places like California are just around the corner for him.

'_I guess I could take a break from the paper for a bit, not like I have much more to do anyway'_ Thought Wally as him and Barry decided to sit back and watch some T.V. The thunder and lightning outside would flash here and then, followed by a boom which kept reminding Wally of the life he had before he abandoned it. Plus it made him think of an interesting subject.

...

"...So, when is _he_ gonna to become Kid Flash?"

His attention was drawn away from the screen as he looked to his nephew, "Huh?"

"Bart. When is he gonna become Kid Flash?" He repeated.

"Well, from what hear, he just wants to stay as 'Impulse' for now- wait, why did this come up all of a sudden?"

The red-haired nephew shrugged , "No reason, just wondering when he was going to be the new replacement." He explained, making sure to put emphasis on "replacement."

"What? No one's replacing anyone. He's just stuck here and now he's just helping out the team, that's all."

"That time I came to help with Neutron was just a one-time thing. Face it, he's gonna wear the yellow and red sooner or later." He zoomed to his room and came back in front of Barry with his old Kid Flash costume in hand, "Here, he can have it, take it, he'll grow into it!"

"No, I want you to keep it." He said cordially while looking past Wally and changing the channel to sports.

This only made him let out a low growl. Swiftly, he shut off the TV the manual way and turned to him, "Keep it? What, in case I change my mind?! When I told you and the Team that I was out of the superhero gig, I _meant _it! Now just take the stupid suit!" He yelled while shoving it into his chest.

Surprised at him, the uncle lightly pushed the costume away. The pitbull whined and hurried into another room, "Wally..."

"I'm not being Kid Flash anymore! Not now, not _ever_! Dick may have gotten Artemis back into the superhero thing, but not me okay?!" As he yelled this, he deliberately threw the costume right into his lap, "Now just give Bart the damned suit!" With another flash of lightning, there was a minute of silence between the two, as Wally came out of his fuming state, he noticed the look of surprise in his former mentor's eyes and the frown on his face.

When another crackle of thunder had cut through the heated atmosphere like a razor-sharp blade, Barry neatly folded the yellow and red costume with care before rising up off the couch, walking past his nephew and making his way to the coat hanger.

Just when Wally was about to apologize to him, his JLA communicator chimed in and he put a finger to his ear to answer it, "Hello? Captain Atom...? Okay, I'll be right there." Ejecting his costume out of his ring, he quickly changed into it so fast that he seemed looked like a tiny red tornado while doing it. Once again donning the legendary red full body suit he readied himself to take to the streets as he opened the door only to see rain descending from the dark and cloudy skies to hit the Earth.

"Uncle Barry, I'm sorry I, I didn't mean to-"

He looked back at him and gave him a small smile, "You did say you weren't going to be Kid Flash anymore." He looked at the house and Caesar then back at him, "This is the life that you want to live then by all means, go for it."

"We may not be partners anymore, but we're still family even though not by blood."

_Kra-thoom!_

The scarlet speedster began to walk out onto the sidewalk (the house didn't have much of a lawn), "So if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here for you." He turned around to give his nephew one last look, "Good night, Wally...and good luck."

Said adult watched as he ran down the street at a speed slower than usual. Dashing through the precipitation, he had to slow down to make sure he didn't trip.

'_There goes my superhero career, literally gone in a flash.'_ He thought as he watched the crimson blur disappear around one of the houses in the neighborhood.

But if he was honest with himself, did throwing away this life for good really have to take driving away the man who had literally given him this life in the first place?

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**Whew! Now THAT was fun to write! **

**At first I had some writer's block with the transition from the flashback (no pun intended) to the present but it all worked itself out in the end. **

**So, what did you think of this first chapter? Let me know in a review!**

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**Up next on Reborn Lightning...**

**Chapter 2: Dead Heat**


	2. Chapter 2: Dead Heat

**Hey guys! How are you- whoa whoa whoa! Don't you DARE scroll down! **

***ahem* Alright, this is basically going to be the episode "War" but with a TWIST!**

**That's right ladies and gentlemen! I've studied the episode intimately and have tried to get is as close to the original as possible, but with some changes.**

**You may now scroll down. ;3**

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**Reborn Lightning **

**Chapter 2: Dead Heat**

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**-The Watchtower-**

It was Captain Atom, Aquaman, and Nightwing were in the central operating room gazing through the glass at what was big but slightly smaller than Earth's massive satellite had the geometrical shape of a planet lined in bright gold with a dark hue that resembled a malevolent violet.

"Attention 'Warworld,' this is Captain Atom of the Justice League, representing planet Earth. We wish to open negotiations."

A deep, ominous voice transmitted through the speakers, replying to the current leader of the League's request, "But I am uninterested in 'negotiation.' The Earth under the Reach's thumb is too dangerous for my long-term plans. It _must_ be destroyed."

"And frankly, if you understood what you were in for with the Reach, you'd thank me for putting you out of your collective misery."

In front of them, there was a yellow portal along with six human silhouettes developing inside it on the machine known as a Zeta-Tube.

As they began to get closer and closer to the opening, the computer picked up on their ID's and announced them, ** "Recognized: Flash, 04; Black Canary, 13, Captain Marvel, 15, Doctor Fate, 17, Rocket, 26, Green Beetle, A12."**

The aforementioned heroes came out of the portal and made their way over to the trio, Rocket was the first to speak up, "So let me get this straight, this thing really has the power to destroy the entire planet?"

This earned a nod from Green Beetle, "That, and more. My scarab had accessed the Reach database and it revealed that this artificial satellite is called the Warworld, a mobile doomsday weapon that is commanded by Mongul, a former dictator who is adamant on reclaiming his world by conquering the entire galaxy."

"We just got off communications with Mongul and apparently, he isn't interested in negotiations the only other choice we have is brute force."

"Looks like Mongul beat you to it." Black Canary remarked while pointing at the whole armada of missiles being spawned from the battle-ready satellite.

"Fate!" Atom called.

Stepping through a yellow and black portal of magic, the yellow and blue Lord of Order known as Nabu made his exit into outer space and appeared just in front of the 'War Planet.' Quickly, he conjured up a bright golden ankh which was colossal in size. As the missiles clashed with the barrier, Captain Atom, along with Rocket, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern, and Green Beetle emerged from the yellow portal.

As Rocket shielded herself and Doctor Fate in a bubble made purely out of kinetic energy, the other fliers scattered as a whole array of orange beams of light came roaring at them, the two captains charging forward to deal with the satellite up close and personal while Green Beetle hung back just short of the assault and assisted Doctor Fate and Rocket in maintaining a defensive line against the explosive blitzkrieg of missiles that managed to get past the two captains.

Inside the Warworld, at the helm, Mongul cast a grim look at the League's intervention and without even having to move a muscle, he gave the order with a single thought and the surface-to-air turrets had emerged from their resting spots on the surface.

As Captain Atom returned fire with blasts of solar radiation while dodging some of the beams, he got on the comms with the Watchtower, "Not sure we're doing much damage in the grand scheme, but Rocket's protecting Doctor Fate, allowing him to maintain focus on safeguarding Earth,"

"and Captain Marvel, Green Beetle and I, seem to have Mongul's attention."

"Good, because the Team's already inside_._" Replied Nightwing. Back at the Watchtower, all four of the heroes surveyed the space battle from afar, deep down inside, at times all of them wished they could fly too.

"So, what can we do to help?" Asked Barry, whose right foot was tapping at super-speed. One of the cons of having a hyper-accelerated body is that sometimes, you just hate standing still.

Aquaman, also known as Arthur Curry, turned back to him, "Should the Team need it, you, Dinah, and I will standby in case ground support is needed. We have the utmost faith in the Team, but even with Green Beetle's schematics, don't know what kind of threat's they'll face behind enemy line, so we can never be too careful."

"Oh, that makes sense." Still, for some reason he couldn't stop his foot from tapping until he felt some weight being put on it. Looking down, he noticed an all too familiar black, calf-length boot on his own and he looked up, past the gray stockings and blue coat and one-piece black leotard only to see Black Canary smirking at him, "Thanks, Dinah."

Her smirk then turned into a small grin as she took her boot off his, "You're welcome."

"Thank Neptune," Said Arthur, he then turned to Dick, "Any sign of detection?"

"No, Blue Beetle's scarab was able to bypass security. Mongul doesn't know they're inside- yet."

The communications system chimed in and Superboy's voice came on the line, "Alpha squad to Watchtower, Green Beetle's schematics are on the money, at least so far. We're en route to take down Mongul. No commander- the threat ends."

Next was Blue Beetle's voice, "Beta squad is en route to the crystal chamber, we snag the crystal key and the threat ends."

Then Bumblebee's, "Gamma squad is en route to disable the Warworld's power core, no power- and the threat ends."

Finally, Batgirl's, "Delta squad moving into position. Laying down cover-fire for surface forces...now!"

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**-Back on Earth-**

Wally sat on the couch, watching the events as they unfolded on the important news bulletin. He had witnessed multiple heroes in action, saving the people from violent shifts in the paths of the waves that was being caused by the Warworld.

Two heroes that had caught his eye in particular seemed to be those kind of old-fashioned heroes like Jay Garrick, the Original Flash. Even though he's retired, his prior days as a hero are often referred to as the 'Golden Age.'

One of them had a white shirt with a large popped-up collar, a blue mask with a red eye design, blue gloves, and pants that were the same color as the latter.

While the other had a costume with the same colors as Barry's outfit. A red short-sleeved shirt with a black domino mask, golden gloves and pants along with red shoes, unlike the blue and white one, his blond hair could be seen.

He watched them closely, his eyes widening as he noticed how fast they ran across the water, '_Even __**more**__ speedsters?! As if Bart wasn't enough... it's been two days since I gave uncle Barry my costume, maybe Bart's finally become Kid Flash?'' _Wally's mind was plagued with grim memories as he remembered his dealings with that little chatterbox.

"Gotta pass down the mantle sometime, I guess..." Mumbled he.

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**-The Watchtower-**

Back up in the refurbished former Green Lantern base known as the Watchtower, Nightwing and the others were admiring the progress of Doctor Fate's defensive line against the rockets when Warworld's face began to divide into some sort of mouth.

Barry smirked at the familiarity of the shape, "Is it just me, or does that thing now look like an evil purple and gold metallic version of Pacman?"

Nightwing looked up at the Warworld and his eyes narrowed as he got on the comms, "Alpha squad? Have you reached Mongul? Come in, Alpha squad!...Alpha squad!"

"Do you think the shielding is now interfering with communications?" Inquired Dinah, earning a shaking from the head of Dick.

"No, I don't think so" he pressed a button to get Beta Squad on the line, "Beta squad, what's your E.T.A?"

"E.T.A is zero. We reached the key chamber!" Blue Beetle replied, "Uhh...this might take a while!"

"Time isn't something that's on our side right now." Aquaman remarked. Just as he said that, the Bio-ship had flown by.

"Delta squad to Watchtower, Bio-ship is waiting to transport Sigma squad." Announced Batgirl.

As soon as Aquaman gave a nod to Flash and Black Canary, the trio stormed off into the Zeta tube and used it as a shortcut to get to the hangar bay. Once they exited, they saw the Bio-ship waiting for them among the other docked Javelins.

The outer hatch of the Martian ship had opened and they all began to pile in, Aquaman was the first but as Canary got in, she noticed she wasn't followed by Flash.

Barry stood there turned to the Zeta Tube as if he was looking off into space. Dinah put a hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly, "Flash...? Flash!" Now she shook him more aggressively.

He suddenly jolted up all of a sudden and looked both ways, "H-Huh?!" He quickly whipped around to meet the blue eyes of his female teammate.

"N-No there's..." He sighed, "There's nothing wrong, sorry, just spaced out a bit there...hey, we should get going!"

Watching him run up into the ship made her all the more suspicious of his behavior. But she shrugged it off- for now, and entered the ship.

While Sigma was getting into their seats and buckling up, Flash couldn't help but notice the amazing design of the ship's interior, "So _this_ is what it's like in here... way more roomier than the Javelins, that's for sure."

"Alright, here we go." Batgirl, said as she commanded 'her' to take off. Soaring out of the hangar and into the cosmos was as easy as having Superman bench-press a car. As the Martian achievement in aerodynamics headed towards the battle, it's camouflage ability was activated.

Little did they know that when they took off, they were being observed by figure standing by the Zeta Tube that had white eyes that were as soulless as they were blank. The small wings over his ears were as crimson as the red lightning bolt on his chest which was entrapped in a white circle, bordered by a whole body of black ebony.

A grimace had formed upon the mouth of the speedster, which was attached to gray, rotten flesh and bone. With a cackle, he disappeared with a crackle blood red lightning which generated from the symbol on his chest.

* * *

"Hang on! Tim! Fire up the main gun!" Exclaimed Batgirl as she tried her best to maneuver the ship out of the way of the heavy laser fire. Suddenly, the whole ship had rocked to the left a bit due to an explosion of a salvo of anti-aircraft fire.

"Barbra? I don't think we're gonna make it!" Tim said while firing the gun at the turrets. As they flew with intense speed over the surface of the satellite, Barbara noticed surface-to-air missiles had been launched and were heading straight for the ship. Taking immediate evasive action, she pulled off a few tight turns with clever manipulation of the brakes and some loops as well.

"Damn it! Heat seekers! I can't shake em'!" As the missiles got closer to the rear, those breathing exercises that Bruce had taught her really started to come in handy right now, "40 meters...30 meters...20 meters..."

Robin had already cringed for the worst when there was a sudden _ping!_ and the missiles disappeared off radar.

As Captain Marvel flew beside them and gave a salute before flying off, Tim looked up from his spot under his station's console and felt his body for any scars, "We're alive? Haha! We're-we're alive!" He turned back to look at everyone, who were currently giving him odd looks, "Guys! We're ali- I mean... yeah, we're alive." He turned back to his station and nodded, "Awesome."

Rolling her eyes, Barbara got her focus back on the mission, "Approaching docking bay now."

Aquaman was the first of his squad to unbuckle and arise out of his chair, "Alright, Sigma, hook up." As he ordered this, three elongated hooks descended from the ship's ceiling and all three of the Leaguers attached them to their belts.

"Prepare to disembark in three...two...one...GO!" The bottom hatch of the Bio-Ship opened and one-by-one, the heroes jumped out roping down from the ship as the red gem-shaped drones present in that area fired on them in masses.

The Flash was the first to blitz them, zipping past all of the laser beams at lightning speeds and running up the wall near them, only to hop off of it and hammer on them one at a time.

"Sigma squad to Watchtower, we have entered the Warworld. Moving to assist Alpha squad." Aquaman announced waiting for Black Canary to finish her Canary Cry prior to leaping over her and bashing two drones together.

"We've got a bigger problem." Dick relayed.

When the team finished off the last drone, they all regrouped, Dinah picked the conversation back up with Dick, "What do you mean?"

The radio beeped and the incumbent leader of the Justice League came on the line, "Captain Atom to all squads! It seems that Mongul is pulling out the big gun. From what I can see, it looks like some kind of cannon!"

" Me, Green Beetle, and Captain Marvel are trying to destroy it, but it seems this thing is being coated with the same technology as that shield that was around the Hall of Justice! I recommend one of the squads taking it down from the inside!"

Flash nodded and turned to the door with a grimace, utilizing his communicator, "I got this." He felt a hand placed on his shoulder and turned around only to look at Arthur, "You two go and help out the team and I'll destroy the cannon. Piece o' cake!"

"No, we need to stick to the plan and go after Mongul. No commander- no doomsday weapons." He clarified broadly.

The speedster gave the Atlantean King a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, I'll get to the cannon in no time. After that, I'll regroup with you guys and help take down tall, yellow, and ugly." He gave them a wave goodbye but not before saying something that would forever be part of his shtick, "I'll be back in a Flash."

_Zoom!_

Both Arthur and Dinah both sighed at the Fastest Man Alive's catchphrase, "He's really got to get rid of that..." After suggesting this in perfect unison, they both followed Green Beetle's schematics to the letter as they made their way to the helm of the Warworld.

* * *

**(Barry's P.O.V)**

From what I could see, there was a whole school of drones going on their routine circuits through the satellite. Obviously, they were put on red alert by Mongul.

Just when the sentries were about to move on, I had moved past them at a velocity that had broke the sound barrier. Even their highly-advance sensors probably didn't detect me.

It wasn't long before I came across some some red grid that blocked a large black and orange door.

This shield has stopped magic and even high-explosive blasts.

But that wasn't going to stop me.

Everything is made out of something- **even hard light**. Light is made out of photons, if I sped up my body on the molecular level, my molecules could slip past the photons and the molecules of that door. But of course, there's always a catch.

The catch is vibrating at just the right frequency in order to phase through that shield and the door. I had to get it right the first time- or else I was done for. People were counting on me so slipping up here was the last thing on my mind. I concentrated heavily and I could feel every single molecule in my whole entire being vibrating at super speed!

The scientist in me was fascinated by this but there was no time to gawk now.

Once I had touched the barrier, there was a bit of electricity at first which gave me quite the sting as my body tried to to adjust to the correct frequency, "Ngh! Just need to...correct the... vibrations...!" Finally, most of my two forearms had managed to get through the barrier, and I made the rest of my body vibrate at that rate until I was intangible enough to phase through that and the door.

Good Lord...even though I was moving at super-speed, moving through that and the door was like wading through molasses! When the strain on my body had increased to great extremes, most of my body had vibrated through, save for the left leg.

When the rest of me had finally decided to join the party , my arms managed to save my face from hitting the floor as I attempted to catch my breath.

"Phew...I-It's official...I am **never** vibrating through anything...again." Yeah, mumbling to myself in-between pants is quite a chore. Looking up and seeing what looked like the core of a giant laser cannon that was already charging, it looked like I was about to have a bigger task on my hands.

Drones were already spawning from above and shooting at me. To them, it must have looked like the lasers were traveling at high-speed, but to me? They were moving in slow-motion.

As I dodged the beams, Nightwing came on the line, "Flash, how's it coming with that cannon?"

"I'm,"

_Pew!_

"working,"

_Pew!_

"on"

_Pew! _

"it."

"Okay, Gamma squad is still working on deactivating the power core while Beta is engaging the enemies in the key cham- the cannon! It's charging! I hope you have an idea on how to take that thing down!"

As a matter of fact, after seeing the array of yellow turn blue as it flowed into the cannon's battery which cycled around clockwise, one came to mind, "I've got one that I'm going to try out."

Now I was hearing Arthur's voice, "Flash. Wait until Gamma squad deactivates the power core! Bumblebee and Mal are trying to work something out."

"I can't! We're running out of time!"

"That's an order! Do not-"

_Bzzzt!_

"Sorry, Arthur..." Leaving the communicator in my dust, my legs pumped harder and harder as I made my way towards the core, still, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed 'him.' The very same 'Black Flash' I saw in the hangar, staring at me with those white eyes of his, a hungry look was evident on his face as he watched me pass by.

I tried my best to ignore him but... I just couldn't explain it, I felt cold to the bone even though my heart was beating like crazy. Now, this wasn't the kind of cold that I would get from a particular Rogue with a freeze gun, but the feeling felt extremely disturbing nonetheless.

I know, I said I was never going to vibrate through anything again, but there's a second time for everything, isn't there?

As the intense wave of pain washed all over my body, I tried my best to ignored it by repetitively muttering these words: "It's for a good cause."

When I had made it inside, there was this cylindrical platform with a vertical column in the middle that regulated all the incoming blue energy. Putting my plan into action, I pushed against the blue storm, going counter-clockwise. Even though the current forced me to go with the flow, I wasn't going to have any of that.

With all the power mustered within me, I pumped my legs harder than harder and I cycled around the column, going faster and faster each time I made a full lap around it.

All I could hear was the whirring sound coming from my feet and the pang that came from my own heart. At least I knew all my efforts were for nothing, the energy began to reverse in my slipstream but it still wasn't enough.

"Can't stop now, Allen...keep speeding..._keep speeding_...!"

As I kept going, I could already feel myself breaking through one of the barriers.

_Boom!_

_**Sound barrier...**_

Looking at my own hands, I could see the yellow lightning on my forearms already beginning to crackle and bleed behind me like pure energy as my vision began to blue-shift. That could mean only one thing...

**_Light barrier..._**

Now I could see someone forming as a like a ripple in the water but soon the image came clear. The image wasn't really an image but it was like a video being played back, I could see myself as a boy, next to a woman with blonde hair and green eyes.

"...Mom..."

"You'll be as just as good as those other boys out there, honey. You'll get there, someday." She said to my younger self.

As I reached out for the image, I tried to grab her but my hand went straight through it. There's not a day that goes by that I wish I could bring her back... and then my dad wouldn't have been blamed for killing her.

"T-This must be a rift in time...I'm going back, back in time..." Even so, as I ran and ran, I could feel my body succumbing to intense heat. It's like it was breaking me down on the inside.

_Molecule by molecule..._

_Atom by atom..._

The part of me that was disappearing, I could feel it being pulled on by some sort of force...everything around me began changing and before I knew it, I was running through some place that housed a sea of yellow and red lightning. It felt like pure kinetic energy, like I was connected to all the motion in the universe... and even so, I could still see various moments in my life- rifts in time, all passing by me.

It was like a force.

**_A 'Speed Force...'_**

In the distance, I could see a what looked like a black dot on the horizon, as it drew nearer, the yellow lightning began to get dominated by the red. Now, it turned into a humanoid figure, and those white eyes could be seen as clear as day.

I managed to evade him and kept on going, racing through the mass of crimson lightning. I could still feel the Black Flash's gaze on me as it pursued me through this new...dimension.

As I felt his claws brush against my neck, I could feel myself aging quickly, my body slowing down to a crawl, as the lightning all disappeared I was brought down to my knees, seeing him towering over me and looking me right in the eyes. The both of us cloaked in an aura of the reversed blue energy from Warworld.

Tears came from my eyes as I knew this was it. There are many things a speedster can outrun. But sometimes, there's one thing that even we can't outrun...

"Iris...Jay...Wally...Bart...Hal, everyone I loved..." He reached out to grab me, "Forgive me for leaving you like I did..." As his claws met my cowl, I could feel the red lightning crawling across my body,"Please, understand why I had to leave you like this..."

At that moment, the reversing of the energy had made the cannon overload. Just when there was enough power for it to fire, it all suddenly exploded and it took me and the Black Flash along with it.

* * *

**As you know, I had to make it somewhat similar to his actual death in the comics. He may not have died saving multiple universes, but he died saving earth and the whole galaxy from having to succumb to a mobile doomsday weapon, so I believe that's somewhat still worth Barry's dead body in my humble opinion.**

**Oh, and who can guess who those two speedsters were that Wally was showing up on the news? Hey! Comic book fans in the back of the audience! WAKE UP! This is your chance!**

**Alright guys, well that does it for this chapter! Please share your thoughts about the twist- oh, and did I mention constructive criticism is welcome? Stay safe, and keep crashing the mode! **

* * *

**Up next on Reborn Lightning...**

**Chapter 3: An Indecisive Rebirth**


	3. Chapter 3: An Indecisive Rebirth

**Reborn Lightning**

**Chapter 3: An Indecisive Rebirth**

* * *

From the large cerulean and gold discharge of cosmic and kinetic energy came a small, yellow ring. Just barely passing by all the separated debris, it began to wave off into the cold vacuum of outer space, a few missiles roaring by it towards planet Earth.

One of the said missiles had flown so far as to meet the fist of the supernaturally powered hero known as Captain Marvel. Once he had dispatched a grouping of missiles he looked over at the wreckage of the cannon and cheered, "Alright, way to go, Flash!"

Recently, Gamma squad had reported in and said that they had rerouted the power right back to Mongul and Alpha was currently taking the fight to him, and judging from the turrets ceasing fire and the halting of the missile pods, the Team was doing a damn good job in there.

Just when the captain was about to fly somewhere else, he noticed a bright glare of gold wading in the distance, just short of where the debris was floating.

'_What is that?_' Marvel's curiosity had getting the better of him, he aviated over towards the dazzling spectacle, only to see an apricot-colored ring slowly drifting away. Scooping it up in the palm of his hand, he inspected it and took note of all the scratches on it albeit while scratching his head. Although, when he had noticed the lightning bolt on the item's face which was similar to the one on his chest, familiarity had suddenly struck him on the noggin faster than he could say 'Shazam', "This is his..." When there was an after explosion that caused a bright ember to show on part of the Warworld, Marvel knew he had to be certain.

As he traveled towards the now destroyed cannon, the Strength of Hercules had aided him in shoving the floating debris out of his path. Making his way into the inner atrium where the world-ending weapon was housed he searched the wreckage, moving miscellaneous parts around until he found some clues: a small broken in half golden wing, pieces of red silk, and one cracked opaque lens.

From the rioting inferno and the smoldering debris to the very objects gripped in his hands, it didn't take Solomon's Wisdom to realize what happened here.

The captain's eyes were took mental snapshots off all that was done here. Looking down at the remains of the famous scarlet speedster's suit, a tear had come out of his eyes, which he quickly wiped away.

"I had idolized every single one of you when I was growing up: you, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, all of them. Ever since I had gotten my powers from Shazam, I had always dreamed of working with you guys, and the Team. When I had joined, I wanted to know what it was like to be a true hero- but today, you've taught me just what being a hero is."

"What I forgot is that even though we protect the innocent, we aren't immortal. You didn't have super-strength strength like Superman, or the ability to fly like Wonder Woman. However, you were the fastest of them all, 'The World's Fastest Man.' With the power charging in that cannon, it could've torn right through Fate's shield and destroyed the whole planet, but you knew the right thing to do and that countless of others wouldn't be alive right now if you hadn't acted." He got up and began to hover.

"What I want to say now is _thank you_- for _everything_. I won't forget what you did here today, and I'll make sure that everyone else remembers, too." When he had said all he had needed to say, he sailed out of the atrium, and headed towards the Watchtower.

* * *

**-The Watchtower-**

At the missions room, the seat of action for heroes far and wide, Nightwing grinned ear-to-ear as he saw the mouth of the Warworld coming to a close, "Great job, everyone. Now, rendezvous ASAP so we can bring you home." After he had said that, one of the entrance doors could be heard opening.

Dick turned around and saw a young teenage boy wearing a red hoody with blue jeans and black sneakers coming in. He smiled and greeted: "Hey, Billy, great job out there with the missiles. You can go rest up, everyone's coming home soon-"

"...Not everyone..." When he noticed Dick's puzzled look, he took the items that he found on Warworld out of his pockets and put them in the man's shaky gloved hands.

"What happened?" He asked, a rough, demanding tone evident in his voice.

"He destroyed the laser cannon but... apparently, he didn't make it out in time. I found those in all the wreckage..." As the boy explained, his eyes went somewhere else as his face once again took on a sorrowful air.

Sighing heavily, the leader of the Team eyed the lightning bolt on the face of the apricot-colored ring, thoughts passing behind his eyes like shadows.

Dick knew he had to tell **him** soon. Question was, with the added possibility of losing Artemis, could he take knowing that he had lost already one of his loved ones?

* * *

**-Earth, Palo Alto-**

Caesar was napping peacefully on the couch, and to add more bliss to the comfort, he rested on his owner's physics paper. Yes, things were going great for the white pit-bull he was currently desiring a German Shepherd across the street. If it wasn't for their respective owners separating them, they would have had puppies by now.

Out of the blue came this odd sound that came from his rear and it startled him to no end. Looking around frantically, he saw nothing there.

The front door had opened and his owner's voice could be heard along with some footsteps, "Hey, buddy, I'm ho- Ugh! Oh my God! Caesar! Okay, that _better _not be poop on the floor I'm smelling! Sheesh, and I thought Grodd's monkeys had a terrible smell..." Putting down the large number of groceries, he ran out of the house only to come back in a second later with some dog food and pour some more into Caesars bowl.

The redhead smirked and rubbed his hands together, "Now it's time to-," He zoomed into the kitchen then came back to the couch with at least five plates of foods that were great in diversity and turned on the TV while putting his feet up. The moment the 'Big Bang Theory' appeared on the screen, his phone rang.

He groaned at the sudden interruption of his relaxation and looked at the caller I.D. before answering. "Hey, Dick, what's up?"

"Hey, we need to talk, meet me at your aunt's house in Central City."

'_He doesn't call here often, so it must be important.'_ Wally pondered this briefly before he responded, "Is this about Artemis? Aqualad?"

"No, actually it's something else. It's...just get here, okay?"

He nodded. "Alright."

'_Oh, sure, Dick, I'll be right there. Not like I had anything __**better**__ to do...'_

After giving Caesar a pat on the head, Wally went over to the coat rack but then shot down the thought, "Eh, I'm sure it's not cold in Missouri..." Whipping around to the white pit-bull, who was now sitting in front of him, he gave him a stern look. "Alright you, try not to stink up the whole place while I'm gone, 'kay?" Taking the canine's bark as an 'okay,' he sprinted out the door at lightning speeds, bolting off into the night.

When the sign indicating the city of Palo Alto's limits had passed by, he had knew that it was a straight shot to Nevada and had decided to kick it into high gear, breaking through the sound barrier and leaving a sonic boom in his wake.

From Nevada he had traveled to Utah, and from Utah, he had traveled to Colorado. Having passed by the border, blazing past traffic was a breeze. It wasn't long until he was out of the state and into Missouri, dashing towards the brightness on the horizon which came from the tall edifices of none other than Central City.

There were a few female citizens just returning to their homes after a day of work when the former speedster had decided to sail by them, his hyper-sonic celerity was accompanied by a violent gale that forced their skirts up.

One man who was near them with a camera blushed and rose to the occasion with that camera of his, pulling off professional photography from a plethora of camera angles, "Blue, red, pink, green- Hello Kitty?!" Looking past the amazing view, he noticed that she had blue eyes and blonde hair along with a terrifying glare.

"Jesse?!" He writhed in fear as he saw her raise one of her high heels over his face, "Oh shi-"

* * *

Striding into Danville, the residential area for the middle-class citizens of Central City, Wally made a sharp left turn and when he was in the proximity of the correct house, the Law of Inertia began to kick in as he slid on the heels of his shoes for a short moment before coming to a complete stop.

There, parked in front of the burgundy colored house owned by his aunt was a black and blue motorcycle which was being leaned on by a Caucasian male with spiky black locks and an athletic physique who was garbed in a brown jacket, a black t-shirt, blue jeans, and black boots.

"Don't tell me you _drove_ all the way here." Wally began, giving the bike a sideways glance.

"The League recently installed a Zeta-Tube here in Central City. The rest was just a little help from Google Earth." Pushing himself off the cycle, he strolled towards the house with his best friend in tow.

"If this isn't about Artemis or Aqualad, then why did you call me here?" His question didn't get a response as they entered the house.

Dick had motioned for him to enter the kitchen, and the moment he did, he saw his parents and the Garricks all comforting a weeping red-haired woman who sat at the counter with her head in her arms. With every muttered whimper and sniffle, her body had jerked and spasmed.

Motioning over to her, he had put a hand on her shoulder, "Aunt Iris...? What's going o-" When he had gazed in front of her, every single muscle in his body had locked as his face grew vague and his shoulders had suddenly dropped as here stared at the three items: a broken yellow wing, a cracked opaque lens, torn red silk, and a damaged apricot ring with a lightning bolt on it.

Even though he could feel a comforting hand being put on his shoulder, his head was hung low as his whole body shivered involuntarily, as if it had a mind of it's own. He could feel the droplets forming on his eyelids, but no matter how hard he tried to fight it, with one single sniff they began their descent down his face.

A pair of thin arms had wrapped themselves around him and he picked his head up only to see Iris embracing him. After their falling out at his house, Wally had never spoken to his uncle in those two days, he had always said he was busy helping the League.

Returning the hug, he had rested his head on her shoulder as his sobs became more frequent.

Just standing a distance away from the family was Dick, who watched as everyone had now began to comfort Wally. He knew what it was like to lose people you care about, hell, he's lost two of them. Back when he was in the "The Flying Graysons," there was nothing he could do to prevent his parent's deaths. Still, that was a long time ago. Here and now however, he is the leader of a team- no, not just a team, a family.

Being the head of that family, it is his duty to make sure that everyone makes it home safe. It's a stressful job, but _someone_ has to do it. Should one of the team members be captured or killed, he's the one held accountable regardless.

Wally has already lost one loved one. Now, making that sure **she** comes back safe and sound is the least he can do for him.

* * *

**-The Hall of Justice-**

The colors of morning were painted high in the skies which towered over the faux headquarters and public relations center of the Justice League which in fact is now widely known as the cover up for the Watchtower, even though there were less visitors here, it gave Wally all the more excuse to be here. He wore a brown hoody with blue jeans and white sneakers.

Before, this place had been reduced to rubble by L-Ron and Despero, but thanks to the assistance of Waynetech, STAR Labs, a quick speed read through some architecture books from Flash and Impulse along with some help from the other Leaguers, the Hall of Justice was rebuilt over the course of April, the current month now being May.

Even though some things such as the statues and the new relics to be put in the "Museum of Justice" were being refurbished, all-in-all, he preferred this over the original with that 'new' smell about it. Journeying into the library, he noticed that there were two other doors in the room, one being the secret passage into the Zeta-Tube, and the other was a newly installed feature, one that Mount Justice had.

Venturing towards the door, the computer had scanned him and announced his designation, "**Recognized: Wally West, A02."** The bland silver door had swished open, revealing walls made out of sedimentary rock and a flight of dark gray stairs that aimed downwards. Quickly ambling down them, he entered a mildly lit room that looked like a grotto of some sort. In the room, lined up side-by-side were life-sized holographic memorials of fallen heroes. Walking by them, he noticed some that he remembered: Aqualad's first childhood sweetheart, Tula, the second Robin, Jason Todd, and Jaime Reye's predecessor, Ted Kord.

Making his way past them, his search for the new memorial had ended. There, at the end of the line was the smiling image of the Flash, Barry Allen: his idol, his mentor, his loving uncle.

At first, his mouth worked without making a sound and he had then bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to find his his words. Once he had found them, he took a deep breath and looked at his uncle once again, "Hey, uncle Barry. I figured I'd come by and...and say I'm sorry. I'm sorry I acted like such a jerk that night and...and..." He could feel something and he had to swallow as he felt his eyes getting watery to the point where he could no longer hold back his grief and sobs.

"and I never got to say good-bye." After trying to wipe the tears away, he walked to and fro, running his hands through his red spiky hair, "I'm so confused right now, and if you were here you'd know what to do."

He stopped and spiraled to meet Barry's hologram once again, "People are looking at me as if they're waiting for me to do something." Sitting on the floor, he wrapped his arms around his knees, "But the truth is...I don't know what to do..."

"Mom and dad always thought that I couldn't do anything right, that I was always off in 'wonderland' somewhere- that I shouldn't follow my dreams. You and Aunt Iris always wanted me to follow my own path...well, the path that I want to take is the one to a normal life."

"I know that Artemis can take care of herself, but after what happened to Tula with Deathstroke? Jason with the Joker? Deep down, it made me scared...more for Artemis than myself, I just wanted us to have a normal life and relax at the thought of neither of us being in constant danger. All those missions we went on together, I worried about her the whole time...I just wanted all the worrying to stop."

"Then, Dick called and now...I already lost you," suppressing his lamentation for a moment and clearing his throat, he continued, "I don't want to lose her too. Giving you the K.F. costume, I figured you didn't need me anymore since Bart was always there."

"With Jay being retired and all, you and him left some massive boots to fill and..." His eyes had cast down to the floor, "and..."

Gradually lifting his head once more, he eyed his uncle's uniform from boot to cowl and seeing the smile on his face made his shoulders drop and something inside him just suddenly cracked as he balled his fists and got up, "I'm sorry but...but I can't!" Turning towards the grotto entrance, he put his hands in his coat pockets and made his exit, trying his best to avoid gazing at the other memorials as he passed.

"I just can't..."

Even though he desired not to, he couldn't help but steal one look back at the memorials before speeding out of there.

* * *

After descending down the iconic "Steps of Justice," Wally rounded around the orange spikes which was actually the design top for a water fountain. As a significant breeze passed by, he felt a minor annoyance and glanced at the trees that dotted the perimeter of the Hall, finding not a soul there, he continued onward through the streets of the national capital, Washington, D.C.

Peeking out from behind of the trees was a blond haired Caucasian man with blue eyes. Covering his agile physique was a light-blue polo shirt, blue jeans, and brown shoes.

"Are you sure about this, Jay? The kid does have his reasons for retiring, ya know." He asked, looking over to a tree adjacent to his own.

"I know, offering to teach him some super-speed techniques does sound a bit pushy..." A remarkably well-preserved elderly Caucasian adult with sky blue eyes came around from his hiding place wearing a brown polo shirt with blue jeans and black shoes, he had brown hair but on the sides were instances of grey, showing that his age was slowly getting to him, "but I get the feeling that he does want to come out of retirement, Johnny. He just needs a little help."

"I concur with Jay." Came a robust male voice. Out from behind the third tree came a man with blue eyes and grey hair worn into a short ponytail sporting a brown sweater with a red shirt, brown pants and brown leather shoes, "I can see it, his connection to the lightning is tied up in a knot, but with some help, he just might be able to untie it." As he relayed this, he focused on Wally as if he was staring into his very soul.

Johnny furrowed his eyes at him for a quick second, sighing in pure annoyance, he had clapped his hand against his face, "Ugh. Not this crap again."

Picking up a nearby sharp rock, Johnny began carving something into the tree at an inhuman speed. "For the last time, Max, we're not 'Conduits' or anything else having to do with all this Speed Force mumbo-jumbo that you keep going on about."

"We didn't get super-speed from some 'mystical energy source.' We got them through a highly advanced form of science, the fourth dimension of time!" Stepping away from the tree, he revealed an exotic mathematical formula which read: '**3x2 (9yz) 4a**'

Max chuckled and shook his head, "You try to limit it down to science and mathematics, but there's more to it than that! It's indescribable in all it's beauty. It's like a whole new world just waiting to be explored!" Thinking back, his grin had slowly disappeared and was replaced by a look of shame, "I attempted to explore it, once. I could feel it calling to me deep down in my heart, drawing me in, and just when I was about to enter...the fear of what lurked inside held me back." Looking up, he noticed a pair of blue jays perching up on a branch.

His hand had reached up towards the two jays, "So close, yet so far,"

The blue jays took flight and headed off in the direction of the rising sun, a gust of wind traveling along with them as they soared over the bustling streets.

"so far, yet so close."

* * *

**-Central** **City**-

The city's clocks struck twelve in the afternoon in the downtown area, where most of the citizens of the "City that's always on the run" would go to enjoy the more finer attractions of the vast, urban metropolis. Not only was this the "heart" of the city, moreover it was the home of the prestigious Flash Museum, in front of it standing a colossal golden statue of the king of speed himself.

A few blocks away from that exact location was small building with white and red accents known as the Big Belly Burger, a fast-food restaurant who's mascot is a cartoon character holding his red rotund belly in pure satisfaction.

Even though it was sort of awkward to be eating at a restaurant that is the subsidiary of one of the most diversified national corporations owned by a powerful enemy of a certain Kryptonian, the multitude of burgers which Wally munched on one-by-one threw that feeling right out the window. As he ate his massive meal, the other patrons of the restaurant were surrounding him in awe.

An elderly man who was sitting with a fellow senior citizen and a teenager gasped: "Well I'll be a broken down engine on the Iron Horse! Look et' him! He's gobblin' up them there sammiches faster than a bull runs round' a ring on a Friday night hoe-down! Woo-wee!"

As he said this, his friend had paused in the consumption of his coffee, "Yeah man, them there go a boy who probly win some contest what eat cha', man. Crazier than havin' them dang on snakes in your boots, I tell you what!"

The teenager in the middle of the table raised an eyebrow at the both of them, "Umm...excuse me?"

One of the men scoffed and looked at him, "Boy, go 'head and eat 'yer greens 'n mash pertaters, this 'dult conversation, hear?"

One of the employees of the establishment had approached Wally: "Um...sir?"

Wally patted his stomach, "Ahh... that hit the-" he suddenly let out a belch at which attracted a multitude of disgusted looks, "Sorry...sorta slipped out." He could hear the sliding of paper and looked down to see the female worker sliding him the bill.

Picking it up he began skimming down the list, "Let's see here...Big Belly large fries... 13 Belly Burger mediums... a soda, 15 Big Belly hot dogs..." grinning, he noticed one of his favorites, "Oh yeah, 20 Big Belly Burger Supremes, the best burger I ever- 350 bucks?!"

"Sir, you do realize you just ate more than half of the burgers we have in supply, don't you? It wouldn't be surprising if most of the numbers on there were incorrect." She clarified, jutting her thumb back at the worn out cooks.

"Good Lord...my arms! Stop! Someone, please... make it _**stop**_!" One of them had yelled this out as they tried to fight the torturous soreness, crawling around behind the counter.

Smiling sheepishly, he rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't suppose you provide discounts for health inspectors?"

By the look of her face, she seemed to have taken that thought into consideration, "Depends." Putting out an open hand towards him she asked: "Do you have a badge or some other sort of identification as proof?"

He could feel a little bit of sweat coming from his forehead and his eyes darted somewhere else, a moment of thought passing by like it was a game of Jeopardy until he finally came up with a solution.

"...I'm undercover...?"

Suddenly, an alarm could be heard from a bank across the street and the whirring of sirens got louder as police cars converged on the bank. Police officers all piled out of their cars and used them for cover as they aimed their standard-issue G17 handguns at the entrance.

Everyone in the restaurant swiftly made their way over to the entrance as they watched the scene unfold.

_'Bank Robbery? I should- no, Wallace, let the guys in blue handle it.' _The second after he thought this, there was a great big white flash that hurt his very his eyes, he felt other people brushing up against him and heard some screams.

As his senses had began to refocus and blinding white had left his eyes, his accelerated vision kicked in and he could see a light-blue boomerang heading straight for the glass in slow-motion.

_'I'd recognize that boomerang anywhere...'_

Quickly pushing his way through the crowd, who were still dazed in all the confusion, he picked up one of the restaurant's chairs and threw it right through window before leaping out himself and spinning around like a whirling dervish. As the tiny whirlwind Wally created sucked the boomerang in, it went in a radial motion around him before going skyward away from the restaurant and detonating, multiple pieces of shrapnel falling to the street below.

As he ceased his spinning, he felt the temperature rising by the minute. Looking at the developing firestorm near the police cars, he noticed noticed silhouette walking through the raging inferno. Once it stepped out, it was revealed to be a man clad in a suit of armor with white and orange accents, scarlet lenses over his eyes and some sort of oxygen device over his mouth.

Turning back to the fire, he spewed out a massive sheet of white substance which pounced on a certain part of the flames and tamed them until they were extinguished for good.

A pair of black boots which stomped through the division in the inferno belonged to a man with pale white skin, nut brown hair and eyes of the same color. As he walked forward, the end of his blue dress coat billowed behind him, a pair of light-blue boomerangs being attached to a bandoiler which ran across his torso. Under the coat was a white scarf with a blue shirt.

"Alright, Boomerang, we've got the money, now where is he?!" Asking this in a hysterical manner, he turned to his cohort. His anxious glare showing right through those lenses.

Straightening his blue cap which had an extended 'v' on the face, and rolled his eyes at him: "Why in such hurry, mate?" Asking this with a notable Australian accent, he handled a two boomerangs in his black finger-less gloved hands and tossed a few of them towards a CCPD rookie who just narrowly dodged them, one of the projectiles having razor-bladed ends which ended up scraping his uniform.

"I didn't develop this suit of armor for nothing! We just got out of Iron Heights two days ago, and we're not going back this time!" Giving the flamethrower attached to his right forearm a glance, he smirked: "Cold promised me the first crack at the Flash today, and this time, oh this time, I'll be ready for him!"

"Take it easy Mick- or should I say, Heat Wave? He'll come- hey, is there any sort of air conditioning in there?" Giving his reassurance while asking a question, he watched as the other boomerang he threw had went upward and crashed into a nearby building, going up in a massive explosion which sent part of the edifice crashing down as rubble and debris. Citizens underneath the rubble tried their best to clear it, a mother had grabbed her little boy by the hand when a frightened beefy man had ran in between the two and separated their hands.

The son being pushed constantly by the retreating crowd, his eyes scanned everywhere but as far as he could see, all there was were people running through the developing smoke away from all the chaos as there were blasts of flames, gunshots, and boomerangs going everywhere.

"Mommy!? Mommy, I'm scared! W-Where are you?" As the child tried to navigate his way out of the crossfire, he felt himself get knocked down again by another citizen. As he got up, he could see a v-shaped object heading straight for him with razor sharp ends.

"Mommy!" He cried this out as loud as he could as he covered his face with his hands. Fear invoking involuntary shivering, he prepared himself for the worst.

_Fweesh!_

Now he could feel some intense motion, as if he was being dragged out of the way. Taking his hands off his face, he could see the world around him moving like a blur as an arm wrapped around his stomach area.

_'Just in-'_ Looking up from the boy, Wally noticed a totaled burning police car flipping straight towards him and the boy. With his body now airborne because he had made a jumping grab for the boy with an accelerated angular momentum, there no way to steer and he was quickly running out of options.

Shutting his eyes tight, he gritted his teeth and awaited fate's decision as his body kept zooming in the angle it was going. Feeling the intense velocity manifesting within him rattling his bones, it was as if every single part of him was was beomg put into fast forward as his body along, with the child's jolted at an unprecedented rate-

_Doom!_

_Doom!_

_Kra-thooom!_

Hearing an explosion behind him, he felt himself descending, holding the kid as tight as he could when he felt his body tumbling against the asphalt, he shielded the lad with his arms. Still, he could feel himself loosing consciousness, his own rapid heartbeat being the only thing filling his ears.

As the spiraling had finally ceased, his vision blurred although he could still see the small figure on his chest. His breathing getting heavy and his heart working overtime, the last thing he saw before the darkness dominated his vision was a flash of viridian which tore through the air.

* * *

**Yeah, I decided to do what YJ didn't: provide an exact reason for WHY Wally retired from the hero gig. (Even though doing college work should take literally nothing from his free time, since he can finish all the work at super-speed...)**

**And I sincerely apologize to anyone with a country accent who was extremely moded by the bit inside the Big Belly Burger. No offense, just couldn't resist since Missouri is typically considered a Midwestern AND Southern state! XD **

**What? I was thinking about Sandy from Spongebob Squarepants, and Hank from King of the Hill (with just a little bit of Boomhower).**

**We're still crash, aren't we? ********(Is anyone getting annoyed by my YJ jargon? Just wondering.)**

* * *

**Up next on Reborn Lightning...**

**Chapter 4: Flashbacks**


	4. Chapter 4: Flashbacks

A/N: Thought I was dead? Sorry to dissappoint you guys. But now I. AM. BACK!

Geez, how long has it been? Months...? Years...? No, I'm pretty sure it's been months, I'm really really really really (insert an army of sorry's here) sorry...

* * *

**Reborn Lightning**

**Chapter 4: Flashbacks**

* * *

Under the plethora of pipes which worked their way through the metallic environment filled with a host of switches and meters were workers in navy blue overalls and lime-white helmets. Seeing them walking to and fro down the long hallways constantly made me wonder how they could walk around in such a huge place without getting lost.

A few sparks of gold and violet-red not too far in front of me had attracted my eyes, looking up and seeing the neon sign which read "ORION INC." come to life. Orion was an electric company which happened to own this whole power plant that my dad had taken (more like dragged) me to. Of course, none of the overalls that these guys wore were in my size, so I just wore normal clothing.

As I sat on the stack of crates my dad told me to move, I kicked my legs back and forth as I waited for him, sometimes I bumped them into the crate on purpose just for the heck of it. Seeing my legs moving like this only envy the speed of the Flash even more.

_With his speed I could go wherever I want, whenever I want. _I thought while looking down at my legs.

Remembering that battle he had with Captain Cold caused a sudden jittery feeling in my stomach. That picture in my mind of when the Flash gave him a right hook had made me hop off the crates and begin begin zipping around the stack. Putting up my fists and assuming a combat posture, I imagined the crates as Captain Cold and myself as the Blur.

_...The Blur?_

Now that I had thought about it, the name seemed a bit too forced, and lame. Quicksilver? Dash? The Quickster? Velocitus? Zoom? No— Kid Flash.

Yeah, I should write that down..." After mumbling this, I had then glared the ice villain who had his cold guns drawn. Even under that hood, I could still see that frosty smirk being cast my way, a blue visor shielding his eyes from view.

Stepping off with my right foot, I didn't even feel the wind as my shoulders tore through it, rushing towards him with great vigor, I could see him aiming his guns at me, but I still didn't stop. Staring at the front end of the barrel, I took a breath, time slowing down as soon as I heard that *click* as he pulled the trigger. The barrel had flashed a blinding white as the ice projectiles came roaring out. The nerves in my brain were quickly put on high alert as I jerked my head to the right to evade it, but even so, the blue beam had sailed just inches past my right cheek, and cold and tingling sensation came to that side of my face.

Now Cold was wide open. Veering left, I readied my fist and came flying at him from the side, my fist nearing his face—

"Wallyyyyy!"

That deep but raspy voice I'd remember anywhere. Captain Cold had suddenly faded and in his place was that stack of crates, and unfortunately, I wasn't able to stop my movements in time, so you can guess what happened next.

"Uwaa!"

BAM!

Now resting on a pile of partially opened crates, I groaned and looked up only to see a pair of irritated chestnut brown eyes glaring down at me. Rubbing my head, I attempted to make some light of the situation.

"Hey, dad...how's works so far?- Oh that's great, don't mind me, just guardin' these boxes."

I could have been imagining things, but I could have sworn I saw a grey hair emerge from all that brown hair when his expression didn't change. A man dressed in a black came over to my dad and gave him a blunt look.

"Rudy..." He said in a irritated and business-like tone. Even though dad had given him an apologetic look, he glanced down at me with his lips forming a frown and adjusted his glasses before walking off and marking something down on his clipboard.

Now, dad was giving me that look that could mean only one thing...

"Office— Now."

The aforementioned room was for the most part a bland grey aside from the beige carpet. A wooden desk stood in front of the window, which was being dyed an orange-yellow hue thanks to the rays of the sun which entered in through the open blinds. Taking a seat in the chair in front of the desk, I looked at his brown shoes as he passed by, an audible sigh emanated from him.

"Wally, what have I told you about daydreaming?" He began, leaning back against his desk. "Son, this is the third time this week this type of thing has happened, and your mom and I are getting very worried. Not only with this fan club you seem to have in school, but you keep messing up on even the simplest of things."

"No I don't!- Wait, what's wrong with the Flash fanclub?"

When I had said that, his eyebrows furrowed and one of his hands ran through his scalp as if he was thinking up a remark.

I'm the president of the Blue Valley Flash Fan Club (BVFFC). So far, I've been handing out some invitations, but there aren't any extra members...for now I guess.

Eventually, the reply came: "It's great that you're the president of the club and all, but by the looks of it, you're its sole member. You're huge fan of the Flash, I know, but don't you think you're being a little too gung-ho about him and the Justice League?"

"I just appreciate what him and the others do, dad! Since when is that so wrong? The way they save people and-"

"It's great that guys like the Flash and Superman are around, but their job is to save lives while it is mine to save your future!"

My future? I had flinched when he had raised his voice, but my grip on the arms of my chair tightened. Him and mom had always made decisions for me, even when_ I _had the right to choose. Ever since I got into middle school, they kept thinking I was a helpless 12 year old that didn't have a single clue, that I couldn't do anything right. Now dad had made me come to this plant because he wanted me to work here. But the thing is... I don't want this kind of job.

I'm so sick and tired of everyone doubting my abilities, and with dad telling me what is and isn't possible for me, like I'm mentally retarded or something. Clenching my teeth, I quickly rose out from my seat and let my feelings finally pour out from my throat.

"No, dad! This job that you want me to have is _your _future!"

By the look of those eyes, astonishment had struck him, "Wally..."

I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks as I clenched my fists and boldly continued, " Did you and mom even consider how I felt about all this!? You always dragged me around and decided everything for me. Was it because I would probably mess it up in the end, like I do with _everything_!?"

"When you come home and talk about your day, you seem happy and like to talk about it and how the pay's good... if that's what you want for your life, then fine, BUT I WANT TO BE LEFT OUT OF IT!"

After I had bellowed those final words, my throat felt heavy as I turned to bolt out of the door, wiping away the tears as I brushed past the multitude of workers.

"Wally, Wally! Come back!" I heard my name being called repeatedly, but I wouldn't dare turn back. Even though I kept pumping my legs, I could feel the wind against my face weakening as the walls of the plant began to melt in my vision as I passed by it and the people that I went through became transparent to the point where they eventually faded away.

Up ahead, there was nothing but a dead end waiting for me there, the concrete wall standing tall as I rushed to meet it. I tried as hard as I could to stop myself , but for some reason...I just keep running and running. There was a tingling sensation in my feet that jolted through my whole body, quickly I crossed my hands in front of my face in quick defense as I hit the wall.

* * *

Was it really all a dream?

That's what I had thought when there was an abrupt haze which violently clouded my vision and caused me to stumble, rolling and rolling as the darkness dominated my perception... Finally, my body had come to a complete stop as I hit my back. Laying there, all I could do was breathe as I stared up at the darkness.

Was this really how I was going to die?

This question roamed through my mind the whole time I lay there, staring off into space as I recalled that flashback that I had witness. Maybe this was just the beginning of a series of flashbacks...the last thing death would let me see before it took me.

I had felt a heavy weight over top of me, and a rocky surface below me. I knew for a fact that I wasn't in a coffin so the thought of death had subsided for now. Heaving upward on the burden which took its toll on my body, I heard some brief cracking and the feeling of jagged rock at my fingertips. Finally overcoming the obstacle, I pushed it off to the side only to reveal dark-grey skies, the smell of ash now tickling my nose.

I sniffed again— yup, that was definitely ash. Quickly, I rose from my supposed grave and gasped as I looked around.

It seemed I was among a large pile of rubble and debris, all around me being tall edifices that were on the brink of destruction, their very infrastructure being harassed by raging flames which slowly engulfed them, the black smoke billowing out to meet the darkened heavens. Amongst the ruins there was a damaged sign which read "Big Belly Burger." If this was the same Big Belly Burger that I ate in earlier, then I have to assume that I'm still in Central City. Standing up, I dusted myself off only to see that I was wearing yellow and red.

_What am I doing in my KF costume?! _I thought as I stretched the yellow fabric which covered my chest. Feeling the cowl over my face and the tiny weight of the goggles on my forehead, I groaned inwardly, remembering my retirement. But by the looks of the people who were strutting through the ravaged streets, it looked like I will be needing this.

Speaking of retirement, there was a blue, red, and yellow streak which zoomed by the multiple eruptions of hellish flames which discharged from the reddened cracks of the black asphalt. In front of the streak, I saw the elderly man in the winged tin helmet which started the whole mantle, Jason Peter Garrick, the Original Flash. Behind him lagged a small flow of yellow electricity which seemed to emanate from the wings on his helmet the, yellow lightning bolt on his red shirt, and even the wings attached to his red boots.

The moment I had even taken a step to go catch up with him, my perception had accelerated the same way it did when I tried to stop Captain Boomerang and Heat Wave— could they be the cause for all this destruction? Could the Rogues really have gone too far?

No...they wouldn't, and even if Cold and his guys had ever decided to cross that line, the League and the Team would have been here to handle it. If so then...how did all this happen?

After seeing Jay vibrate through a car in slow-motion, he had put his right hand over where his heart would be and he let out a rather violent cough. There was a crimson voltage that began to lag behind him. It was there that something humanoid began to form as he passed through a dense cloud of smoke.

As he had emerged from the wall of smoke, it was clear that he wasn't alone. A pair bright of white eyes had shone themselves even through the dark smoke. As the pair moved, so did a dark figure which rushed out of the smoke after Jay. I had tried to move to save him, but I couldn't keep up with them no matter how hard I tried.

All I could do was watch as the dark humanoid chased after him with those sharp elongated black talons attempting to swipe at his back every chance it got. Jay, who had noticed the black blur, constantly kept shifting left and right, desperate to stay out of the creature's grasp as it crept up on him. The crimson lightning looked like it was weighing heavy on the old runner, his skin getting paler as the claws brushed up against his neck.

Finally, it seemed like the Original Fastest Man Alive had breathed his last breath. The claw drew nearer up his head until it the tips finally jabbed right into the back of his head. His whole being was gradually reduced to nothing as he stood there with his now iris-less eyes wide. Taking the fall, the only thing there left of Jay was his skeleton and his Flash uniform.

"JAY!" I cried as the black creature then disappeared without a trace. Coming over to where his remains were, I picked up his scarred helmet as I saw those white eyes materialize in front of me again, resting in the head of a lifeless body which—

—_What in the hell is that?!_

What stood there utterly disgusted me. It was like some punchline to a bad joke, and by the look of that grin on its lifeless face, it seemed to find my reaction quite amusing as I glared at it's costume. Seeing that bony, animal-like face under that cowl and the blood red lightning bolt within the white circle...It was the opposite of all Barry stood for, and now, here and now it was wearing the costume— _his_ costume, with horrible black and red accents which replaced the traditional red and yellow.

It doesn't deserve to wear those boots...and the way it just stands there, smiling as if it just won the lottery...

With a *Fwoosh!* sound running through the air, this "Black Flash," had dodged a roaring punch from a familiar red glove which was followed by a white and red streak. Sailing right over the killer came a young speedster with chestnut brown hair and pale skin under those goggles of his. He came sliding towards me with a light pant and widened eyes the moment he saw Jay's skeletal corpse on the ground.

"Wally! What, what happened to-"

"_**He**_ happened." While putting down Jay's helmet, I said this with a distinct venom in my mouth as I pointed at this twisted version of Barry.

"Okay, WG and SB are at the Flash Museum, the rest will be here any minu—"

I didn't even get to hear the rest of his sentence as I launched forward with my right foot and threw myself straight at the monster. Even as I readied my fist, the dark speedster remained motionless as the grin on his lips turned into a smirk as his body began to jolt in place.

Then came the moment where I could finally wipe that stupid smirk off his face. My haymaker came barreling right into the bridge of his nose when suddenly, it went right through it.

I was never really at that good at stopping at this speed, so the law of inertia enjoyed toying with me as my whole body followed suit and went right through him. Luckily, I was able to catch myself using both my hands to propel myself off the ground and forward until I landed upright and made the soles of my shoes endure the hardened surface of the black earth.

I gazed over my shoulder and there was a blood red stream of light which entered my field of view. Amplifying what strength I had in my legs, I hurled myself right as the ray...no... lightning bolt, passed just inches away from my right side and even though there was a loud explosion behind me, that was nowhere near as loud as the voice of my dad rang in my ears—

—_You think you can do all these ridiculous things inside your head, but you can't! You just can't, Wally!_

The intense force that I felt hit my jaw made me think that it was him trying to "knock some sense into me."

Unfortunately, the punch didn't come from Rudolph West.

Being sent to the ground yet again, I saw Black Flash pointing at me, commanding the swarm of red voltage which surrounded him to chase me down like a dog. I just barely avoided one of the lightning bolts as I rolled to the right and got back on my feet to continue running, preferably in the direction away from the runner shrouded in ebony. Bart came up on my left hand side.

"So, what's the plan?"

That was a question I was hoping he wouldn't ask.

Hold him off until the Team gets here? That is if there even _is _a team still alive amongst the ruins of this city...

"We'll just have to regroup with the others. The Dark Flash can wait."

Could he be the one that started all this? If so, then how did one man cause all this destruction? I'm pretty sure the League and the Team can stop one speedster. It's a possibility that the Light could be involved in all this, too.

But how does all of this explain how I'm in my KF costume? This buzzed around in my mind for awhile until I decided to ask Bart.

"Hey, Bart, when did all this start to happen?-" There was a sudden cringe in my chest as I looked at him, I couldn't even steal a gasp as I witnessed a vibrating black hand sticking right out of his chest, right through the exact place where his heart would be. There wasn't any signs of blood or forced entry, the only proof of his demise was the grey developing on his body as his skin became null and void. He was looking at me with his mouth open as if he was about to answer my question, but behind those goggles, his once green eyes became a lifeless hazel.

There behind him was the same monster that took Jay's life. Once again, he flashed me that same disgusting grin from before and turned into a black and red blur, going right through Bart and leaving behind a stretch of red electricity on him.

My cousin went crashing towards the ground, but I came to a complete stop and caught him before he could hit it. I slid a little then my whole body trembled and I was forced to my knees as I held his body in my arms. I took off his goggles and the image of his lifeless eyes became all the more clearer.

The streets were for the most part silent, the only consistent sounds was the crackling of the raging flames. That was what I thought until I heard a pair of footsteps behind me.

If this was it for me, then fine...I'm tired of playing this monster's sick little game and I want it all to end. As the steps became louder and louder, I braced myself, but the hit never came, instead, I sensed someone kneeling right beside me.

Looking to my right, I noticed it was Barry looking down at Bart with a mournful expression on his face. He was dressed in normal attire, specifically the same attire I last saw him in. He shifted his head over to me and gave me a small smile as yellow lightning came out of his ring and danced around him with great vigor. Then, with a bright golden light, there he was in his Flash uniform. Even under that dark red cowl, he still retained that small smile. He gently put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a nod as the lightning design on his forearms, belt, and torso, became illuminated.

This comfort didn't last long however as the yellow radiance which danced around him, eventually consumed him. He, along with that smile, deformed into nothing but a stream of yellow electricity which swerved down to my right hand and there, taking up space on my ring finger was the very same apricot ring that Barry wore, except that it was fully pieced back together without a single scratch on it's surface.

The white lightning bolt in the center glared at me with a yellow brightness the very moment I had laid eyes on it.

Bart's skin had already faded away, beneath that Impulse costume was nothing but the skeleton of a 13 year-old boy. Even so, there was still a yellow energy that raced off his body and circled around me. I could feel a warm liquid tumbling down from my eyes as I had no choice but to let him go. Already, I could already see the Dark Flash here for round three, standing on top of an overturned 18-wheeler, he sent forth a red voltage that created humanoid constructs bathed in crimson which rushed to meet me, their speed being on par with mine by the looks of it.

There were so many that I began to doubt my ability to take them on— _but now's not the time for doubts. _

WIth one kick off the ground with my right foot, I shot forward to meet their assault and with the yellow voltage around me, I felt faster than ever before. The construct leading the pack had already thrown a haymaker at me, but I jerked left and grabbed his head and kicked off the ground with my left foot, only to slam my right knee right into his face, sending him back stunned, but not entirely defeated.

My heart was a battleground for both both excitement and fear as I ducked and weaved through the whole pile of super-fast beings, delivering kicks and punches as needed just to keep them at bay. Even so, I still felt a few jabs crash right into my cheek and a few kicks at my torso. I felt a sudden weight on my back and I quickly heaved the thrall off me with a heavy throw— courtesy of Black Canary.

It's body slammed right into a nearby damaged car, it's front bumper being the only thing that halted him. He was about to rise up but I managed to get close enough and slam his head onto the hood over and over again at high-speeds, painting multiple dents on it with his skull. The red spectrum which made up his entire being took him along with it as it dissipated and traveled up my gloves.

Yellow mixed with red and with that, my costume began to change. I could see the yellow lightning bolts on my forearms and the yellowness of my suit changing to red.

I felt a hand brush against my right arm and I managed to pull reel my elbow back with enough force only to feel it crash into what felt like the abdomen.

There, in the midst of the crowd was a break in the flatness of the streets, a part of the asphalt was pulled up as if to look like a ramp. l my strength into my feet and leaped towards the the Black Flash with my fists cloaked in a solid yellow.

"HYAHHH!" Just as my fist was about to meet with his claws, there was a sudden white flash. The city, the ground, the Black Flash and his minions, everything faded into nothing but black particles, and there in the white void, I was truly alone.

* * *

I could hear a beeping sound that occurred just a few seconds after the last in a repetitive sequence. I felt warmth at my left hand and that was what encouraged me to open my eyes, only to see the grey ceiling above. As I sat up, I looked down at myself only to see that I wasn't my costume but in a simple black shirt. Scanning the room, I could see hi-tech medical equipment near the bed that had a couple of long grey things that were attached to me with suction cups.

Looking over to my left, I saw scarlet hair the same color as mine resting on the edge of the bed comforted by the soft dark green sheets. Gazing down, I noticed Aunt Iris' right hand was holding my left.

In front of the bed was a TV which was suspended from the wall. Currently, it was displaying the news channel.

With an abrupt *whumpf* sound, the chrome-encrusted door which stood on the right hand side quickly slid to the left and disappeared inside the grey wall, revealing an adult male wearing a blue and red costume with line patterns being the same as the latter. The public knew him as "The Atom," but a select few knew him as Ray Palmer.

"Ah, good, you're awake. When Hal first brought you here, you had us worried, your vitals were weakening and-"

"Where's the kid? Is he safe?" I quickly sat up, but Ray clapped my shoulder and urged me back onto the bed.

"Relax, he's safe back on Earth. Hal made sure that the both of you were. He told me something very peculiar happened when you were trying to get that child out of harm's way, if that hadn't have happened, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation."

By him saying "back on Earth," I quickly realized that I was in the medical wing of the Watchtower. As if the futuristic sliding door wasn't already a huge hint.

"So what did happen?"

The Caucasian hero turned to the medical equipment as if he was examining it: "Molecular oscillation." He began, not taking his eyes off the device's monitor. " When you were running towards that police car, you must have accidentally accelerated yourself on the molecular level to the point where your own molecules passed through the car's molecules."

"So, you're saying that me and the kid went through the whole thing without a scratch?"

"Not only that, but it seems that after you went through the object— it exploded. It's a possibility that the kinetic energy that you were generating excited the car's molecules to the point where they reached critical mass and..." He shrugged then turned to me with a smile. "you know the rest."

For some reason, I could never learn to vibrate my molecules as well as Barry could. On top of that, Bart can do it without even trying...

Images of Bart's last moments came soaring through my mind, but Ray quickly snapped me out of it with his continued explanation, "Thing is, all that strain on your body put you into a coma for two days."

"T-Two days?! Then who's guarding Central City?!"

"Green Lantern."

"Okay, then who's guarding Coast City?"

Ray's calm expression remained unchanged along with his answer, "Green Lantern."

When he said "Green Lantern" twice, I knew he was referring to Hal and his associate from the Corps, Guy Gardner. They must have agreed that one protects the main city while the other watches over the other one in his place.

I felt the warm hand holding on to my left begin to move, a sign that my Aunt was waking up. Looking over to her resting spot, I could see those eyelids finally pull up to reveal those green eyes of hers. Her attention slowly shifted to me as she rubbed her eyes drowsily, only after a moments was she apparently released from her groggy state when her body jerked up abruptly as her eyes sparkled in pure joy.

"Wally!" She had gasped then let this out with great exclamation. We both shared a hug and at that moment, the loneliness that I had felt in that dream withered away as I felt my Aunt's comfort. From my peripheral vision, I could see Ray walking out the door.

When we had finally separated, I felt guilty for her staying here and worrying about me. When she had found out about Barry's identity as the Flash, she had worried about him all the time and when she found out about me being Kid Flash, the worry had doubled, and now, with Barry gone, it's probably been all the more stressful for her. The possibility of Jay going next: or Bart, or who knows, maybe even me.

I bet there wasn't even a day that went by when she wished that she could at least stop Barry when he had to go off to save the day. That he could stay with her instead of having to bear with the fact that her husband was out there throwing himself into danger constantly. I know what that's like, too... when someone wants to continue being a hero no matter what the cost, and when you try to convince that person to stop being a hero, you just can't stop them. You have to let them go.

The white door over on the right swung into the wall again and in came the brown-haired man who was like my second uncle—Hal Jordan, alongside a woman with deep brown hair (which could be mistaken for black) and eyes which shone a medium sapphire.

Hal was the first to approach me, the corners of his mouth were quirked upward with his hands in the pockets of his caramel brown jacket. Sometimes I wonder how the Green Lantern ring puts on the user's traditional costume while replacing their normal clothing. Where do the clothes go? Does the suit simply come over the clothing just like that? Why are the Lantern suits designed the way they are? Why do their powers have to come from a battery? Why does the power have to come from emotion?

Even so, Hal was clearly not in his Lantern suit, but casual apparel: a brown jacket with blue jeans and black shoes, a black shirt being under the jacket, "Hey, finally awake, huh? Gave me a scare there back in Central City."

I was grateful for him coming to save me, but it isn't like California and Missouri are right next door to each other, so I had to ask: "Thanks for saving me. It's not that I'm complaining or anything, but, how did you know where I was?"

"I was patrolling the city when I saw some smoke in the distance. I assumed something big was going on and I guess I assumed right." And thank goodness he did, otherwise, the Central City Fire Department would have had their work cut out for them.

"Oh, that's right, I never introduced you to Carol," Hal said as the crackling of the aforementioned woman's high heels sounded against the floor with each step she took. When comparing their height, Carol stood at Hal's shoulder blades.

She offered her hand to me and I shook it as she began. "Carol Ferris, nice to meet you Wally. Hal has told me a lot about you. I'm sorry to hear about your uncle...I'm sure he was a great man." She had said this in a very sincere tone and finished it off with a smile. Our hands had parted by the time she got to, "nice to meet you".

Although he had never introduced me to her, he has mentioned in the past that both him and her work as pilots at _Ferris Aircraft, Inc. _one of the leading aviation companies in the world, specializing in advanced aviation concepts. Apparently, she took over the company after her father, Carl Ferris, died. Knowing Hal, she must always be reminding him to keep their relationship professional while on the job.

Suddenly, the song "_When Can I See You Again"_ by Owl City, could be heard playing from the pocket of Aunt Iris' green jacket. Under that, she wore a white shirt. She rose up and the black skirt she wore could clearly be seen going down to her knees.

"Sorry, I'll be back in a sec." As she answered her phone, the crackling of her black high-heels signaled her exit as the automatic door executed the standard open-close procedure as she went through.

I looked over to Carol. "So, what's it like flying a jet?" Aside from almost crashing the Bio-Ship and promising M'gann never to fly it again, I haven't really had all that much experience flying aircraft. Although, I do know for a fact that jets can fly faster than the speed of sound.

"Well—" Just as Carol was about to share her experience, Hal's ring suddenly flashed and the holographic projection of a large, brawny alien clad in a Lantern uniform similar to Hal's, except it was complemented by shoulder-pads and pretty much a more "armored appearance" on the whole body in general. What did they call his race again? Bolovian? Bolivian?...Oh, that's right— Bolovaxian.

"Kilowog? I was expecting a call from the Guardians, but you guys just love to keep me guessing." Hal said this in a nonchalant manner only to receive a rolling of the eyes from the Bolovaxian.

As I expected, there was a thick gruffness of the "Drill Sergeant" type in his voice when he replied: " We received word of a Red Lantern incursion in sector 2813."

"2813...That's where Krypton is..." Hal said, most likely to himself.

Kilowog nodded and continued, "The Corps' rounding up anyone closest to that sector— including you. The strike team is already getting together; I bet you can already guess who's leading them."

"I would looove to help with that," He glanced at me then back at the ring, "But my hands are full on Earth."

"Guy can handle it. Plus, there are how many heroes roaming that planet? How much trouble could there possibly be?"

"Then who's going to protect Central City?" I interjected. Even though Guy was still on Earth, there was no way he could watch both Coast and Central at the same time, not only that but a couple of other things: the League has it's hands full with protecting the War World, Bart is still busy operating with the team, and Jay isn't available either because he's retired (the same could be said for me also).

The swishing sound of the automatic door could be heard again, this wasn't the sound of Iris' heels but rather the sound of boots. In fact, those boots just happened to belong to the hero of magical origin who's powers were given to him from the Gods through the Wizard Shazam— _Captain Marvel_.

"I will." There was a great boldness in his mature voice when he said this. Stepping forward past Hal and Carol, the cape the followed behind him was no longer covered his left shoulder, but his whole back, the hood part of the cape was clamped down at his shoulders.

With a flash of viridian, Hal had abandoned his casual clothes for his high-collar Green Lantern uniform. The glowing lantern on his chest was like a central conduit for the willpower which radiated from it and expanded in lines across the suit, making it take on a more "organic" look. Through his mask he gazed at me with a sorrowful look, but I gave him a reassuring smile. If Superman's homeworld was involved, then it had to be important.

He nodded and clarified: "If anything happens, I'm only a sector away." He then looked down at Kilowog's image, "I'm on my way." As the hologram disappeared, Hal fist-bumped with Billy and there was a minor meeting between lightning and willpower at the knuckles. With that, all three of them exited.

A few minutes passed before Iris returned from her phone conversation, "I'm sorry, Wally, I gotta go," she sighed, "They need me back at the job..." She came over to the bed and gave me a hug then a peck on the forehead, "Atom said he's going to run a few tests on you later, so no getting out of bed, understand?" It wasn't a "don't you even think about it look" that she was giving me, but one that showed concern and worry.

"Yes 'mom'..." She might as well have been.

As she left, my attention turned to the TV once again when a certain thing had caught my eye. Behind the male reporter was an image of Hal preventing a truck from falling off a bridge with a baseball glove construct―a personal favorite of his.

"In these last two days, this hero, the Green Lantern, has been apprehending tech villains such as Captain Boomerang, Heat Wave, and the Pied Piper."

Suddenly, there was a jolt that ran through my body at what I saw next.

Suddenly, the image had turned into the Flash symbol with a giant black question mark in front of it, "But watching this green vigilante in action has the people of Central City asking one question: Where. Is. The Flash...?—G. Gordon has this to say."

My eyebrows had furrowed as the curly brown hair was replaced by blond hair, the brown eyes shifting into blue as the aforementioned man came on the screen.

"Honestly, am I the only one who sees through all this?" He sneered. "Perhaps the 'Fastest Man Alive' was too busy up in the not-so-top-secret-anymore 'Watchtower' that he was too busy to help us little people."

Normally, I would have ignored his usual bad-mouthing of the Justice League, but hearing him say all these things about Barry made me want to slam his face into a concrete wall at hyper-speed.

Clenching my fists, I had felt an unusual texture wrapped around one of my left fingers. Looking down at my hands, when I saw it, it was like my dreams had followed me on my return to reality— The Flash ring.

* * *

The examination didn't take long. Ray had noticed all my vital signs were normal and there was nothing abnormal about my body (hyper-accelerated metabolism doesn't count). Before he had even came in, I put the Flash ring under my bed; I felt the enigma should be kept a secret— for now. Retrieving the ring after all that was done, I was given a new pair of clothes: A white and red shirt, blue jeans, and black shoes; then Zeta-Tubed back to Stanford University.

The receiving teleportation device was situated in a secret back room embedded in the alabaster wall between two chocolate-colored bookcases. These bookcases — along with the other 22 book cases in the room — belonged to the Cecil H. Green library, the largest library on campus (most of us just call it the "Green Library"). The Green Library got it's name from the British-born American geophysicist, Cecil Howard Green. The library came with three floors; currently, I was on the second, which contained the Lane reading room along with the university archives.

Opening the peep hole, I had checked to make sure the coast was clear before I opened the door. Even so, I could still hear footsteps so I quickly closed the door behind me and went on my merry way. Trudging past the other browsing students, I made my way into the the hallway where my shoes clattered against the purple-red and white accented tile floor. Smirking, I looked back and saw the coast was clear before speeding down the hallway, getting more friction per step and zero from the wind. I had to struggle with sharp turns by making hard stops and dodge the occassional crowd of students here and there before I arrived at the stairs.

From what I've been hearing, running past everyone around here has caused a popular betting game: _Spot the Speedster._

Everyone who wants in bets their money on where the runner (obviously me) will appear next. Unfortunately for them (and lucky for me), they have yet to spot the runner.

Now blazing through the hallways of the first floor, I noticed the entry doors up ahead as a few students were opening it. Timing it just right, as they walked through the door I zoomed right past them and made my way off campus, dodging past the usual traffic until I arrived home.

The house was modest with it's light-green hue. On the side was a flight of stairs which led up to the second floor (I know, it seems a bit unorthodox, but it's actually come in handy at times).

Everything about the house was normal, no signs of break-in or anything of the like (not like this place was a bad neighborhood or anything like that). Getting out my keys, I entered and shut the door behind me and when I was done setting the alarm, I ran towards the living room for some relaxation - that's what I thought I was doing until I my face suddenly met the wooden floor.

Of course, Caesar came running and was quick to lick my face.

Slowly moving him back a bit, I sat up and looked back at what tripped me, I saw a brown package sitting there with the letters **'MM'** signed on the front of it. So much for thinking no one could get in.

Okay, there are only three people I know of who can possibly have that signature: Miss Martian, Martian Manhunter, and finally, Mirror Master, one of Captain Cold's Rogues. Of course, I had to rule out the latter because I highly doubt the Rogues have even the slightest clue about where me and Artemis live. Me and J'onn don't talk much, so I'm pretty sure he didn't send this either...that just leaves M'gann.

My hands worked like a well-oiled package-opening machine as I ripped off the tape and opened the box — what was inside had made every muscle in my body lock in place.

Glaring up at me was the very encircled red lightning bolt that I thought I had abandoned for good. Occupying the very fabric of the suit was a folded letter. Unfolding it, I began to read it.

_Flash Museum, Central City._

_Meet me out in front._

_With best regards, _

_**MM~**_

In a matter of seconds, I had finished donning the suit that's been giving me so much grief. The feeling of the fabric felt alien to me and unwanted. Looking down into the box I noticed all that was left were my red goggles.

_No turning back now I guess, _I thought as I put them on my forehead. I bent forward and pulled down my goggles, seeing the usual red Heads-Up-Display. As I leaned on my right leg and let my left stretch behind me, I put both hands on the floor and prepared take off yet again. At that moment, I felt something being pushed against my right boot and I looked back only to see Caesar whimpering and nudging me with his bowl.

"Alright, I guess M'gann can wait."

* * *

I know what you're thinking, why couldn't I have just Zeta-Tubed to Central City? Well, it's mainly because of the sights I get to see: speeding through the streets of Las Vegas all the way to the Mojave Desert; making the occasional run through the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah? All that is just too good to pass up. Me and Barry have always preferred to run to all the places we can get to, but if it's some serious covert ops mission or something along those lines, we had to make do with sitting in the Bio-Ship and the Javelins (and our respective teams had to deal with the sound of the hyper-accelerated tapping of feet).

Being in this city with this costume brought back a lot of memories that I'd rather have locked away, never to be explored again. Making a sharp turn, I saw the golden statue of my uncle in his usual running stance and went past it, dashing up the steps and came to a complete stop. I put my goggles back on my forehead as I looked around. The scent of hot dogs was clear in the air but I ignored it as I felt the wind blow by, now was no time for food.

Turning away from the entrance, I sighed and sat down on the front steps as I let the smell ofood tempt me even more.

"Looks like she's a no-show..."

Then oit of nowhere a deep voice replied, "Who's a no-show?"

I looked over my shoulder in the direction from where the deep voice came and standing there was a man with a high-collar white shirt and blue tights. The upper-half of his pale, fleshy face was covered by a blue and crimson mask.

_Why does this guy look so familiar?, _I thought as I examined his costume.

He gazed down at my left hand, presumably beaming at the Flash ring, "So my assumptions were correct, he _did_ communicate with you through the lightning."

"Through the lightning? What li —" Before I could even finish, he disappeared into a streak of blue and white and re-appeared behind me. He had taken the ring.

I quickly turned around to look at him, "Wait, hold on, you're that speedster that I saw on the news broadcast!"

He didn't show the slightest bit of interest as he examined the ring in his blue gloved hands.

"Who are you? How'd you get your speed? Was it similar to how Jay got his?"

"So the generator passes it on to the mainliner...I see..." He muttered as he still inspected the ring.

Alright, that's it.

_Whoosh!_

In a matter of seconds, the ring was back in my possession and I stood a distance away from him just incase he was going to go all Smeagel on me and demand his "precious" back.

He turned to me with a blank expression on his face. I was expecting something more but hey, at least I got his attention.

I began, "Alright, first thing's first. Who are you and what do you mean by this 'lightning?'"

"My name is Max Mercury."

_Well now, I guess that plus the speed explains the package..._, I thought as he continued.

"The lightning is actually a mystical source of power, a whole other realm that exists on the outskirts of time itself — The Speed Force. Your Uncle, Barry Allen, had communicated with you through the Force and that ring contains a sample of it's energy. The power from that dimension runs through people like us, Wally."

I sighed deeply at the word "mystical" and rolled my eyes. It was Doctor Fate all over again...

"You're like Johnny, you don't believe in it either." He said while crossing his arms. I could tell he was raising an eyebrow at me behind that mask.

"Well, yeah." I began while approaching him, "All of the speedsters we know have gained their powers through a form of science: Jay from inhaling water vapors; Barry and me through a lightning bolt and spilled chemicals, and finally, Bart through genetics —"

"Not all of them." He replied, the look in his eyes told me he was ready to take the ring again — however, time I was ready for him. I had accelerated my perception to match his speed so I could track his movement. While the world around us had been slowed down to a crawl, I could still see him putting his right foot forward at a normal speed. To a normal person, he would have looked like a blue and white streak.

But to me, he just looked like your everyday runner. Still, he came barreling towards me for the ring and I easily side-stepped him as he came to a sudden stop right in front of me.

What he had done next had caught me by surprise — he had vaulted over me and took the ring out of my hand right after he landed.

The very moment I whipped around I could already see him at the bottom of the steps, waving at me before running off into the street.

"Alright, Smeagel." I put my goggles back over my eyes, grimacing at the challenge. "If that's how you wanna play it." Running down the steps, I began my sprint into the streets, braving the afternoon rush hour.

Cars, pedestrians, and traffic lights all came rumbling in and out of my vision as I evaded them. Apparently, the pedestrians and drivers were well aware of our behavior because I heard shouts like, "Holy crap! Look at them go!" and, "The Flash has _more_ sidekicks?"

Sure, I was off to a slow start but eventually, we were head-to-head in terms of racing. He looked at me and said, "My speed was given to me by an Indian Shaman as he took his last few breaths. Believe it or not, this mystical energy does indeed exist." We came upon a four-way intersection and he made a sudden but sharp left turn, an action I couldn't replicate.

You see, I've always had this problem with sharp turns where I had to slow down prior to making the turn — unlike Barry, Bart, and Jay, who could all turn on a dime, no matter how fast they were going.

Just as I was about to make the left, I noticed a flash of lightning in the distance in front of me and there was only one person I knew who could make a lightning bolt come out of a clear sky...okay, actually two people, but the other one just happens to be a Rogue.

Glancing off to the left I could still see Mercury speeding down the street with the Flash ring in hand. There were two Wallys in my mind debating on whether to follow him just to hear more of his "Speed Force" nonsense or go see Billy...

_Fweesh!_

Guess who won?

* * *

So guys, how's my writing? Do you think I still have it? Let me know in a review! (

**Up Next on Reborn Lightning...**

**Chapter 5: Manhunt **


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